GRAND RAPIDS — At practice Monday, Calvin College men’s basketball coach Kevin Vande Streek reminded his inconsistent team about getting its act together during the stretch run in the regular season.

His message came through loud and clear.

The Knights responded with an impressive 93-65 victory against Olivet College that propelled them into a tie for third place in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association standings in front of almost 1,000 fans Wednesday night at Van Noord Arena.

Calvin (9-9, 4-3 MIAA) has lost just once in its past five games since suffering through a four-game losing streak Dec. 29 through Jan. 7 while coping with injuries and academic issues that threatened to spoil its season.

“It was a big focus for us,” Vande Streek said of his speech to his team Monday about making sure to finish the season strong. “This game was huge in that regard. We’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us.

“I told them we’re playing for something all the time now. It’s now or never.”

The Knights, just a game out of second place in the MIAA standings heading into a crucial home matchup against Adrian on Saturday, stormed to a 45-27 lead at halftime and never let up.

“The way we’re playing now, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun when guys are playing hard, and it’s a lot of fun to coach them,” Vande Streek said. “Adrian’s a huge game for us coming up. If we win that game, we put ourselves in a nice position.”

Tom Snikkers, a junior forward from Unity Christian, led the Knights with 22 points against Olivet (3-16, 1-6). He finished 9-of-12 shooting from the field and contributed seven rebounds and four assists.

“I think over the last couple of weeks, our mentality has really changed,” Snikkers said. “We come out there and work hard on rebounding and defense. If we do those things, we usually come out on top. Coach mentioned the other day there’s four weeks left in the season. We’ve got to keep working hard.”

The Knights shot 59 percent (36-of-61) from the field.

Bryan Powell, a junior guard from Wyoming Park, had 18 points off the bench on 8-of-10 shooting. He said the entire team has become much more focused in the past few weeks.

“We really got together and said it’s better to be good at the end of the season,” Powell said. “We’re really starting to click in our roles. Everyone is doing a better job. We’re starting to figure out how to win.”

The all-around team effort featured all 12 players grabbing at least one rebound against Olivet. Eight different players had an assist, including point guard David Rietema, a junior from Grand Rapids Christian, who finished with two points but led the team with eight rebounds, seven assists and a pair of steals.